[homophonic] catchall for kazuki

[dendroculi]

KAZUKI

code

Comments

[teenrebellion]

Ah. Well, I guess it's good that you're not alone in a place like this...

[ except this kaveh guy just let this child walk around? bro? your babysitting skills? anyway he's pulling out his phone to see who kaveh even is... ]

Oh, that guy. He helped me find new clothes earlier.

[dendroculi]

[waits for kazuki to see that she's 500...]

He did? That's not surprising... he's very good at helping people. [a beat.] But, he's not very good at accepting help from others...

[it worries her, honestly.]

[teenrebellion]

So he's like that? Even at his age...

[ sighs. he just met the guy and he's already tired. ]

Alright, I'll try to check in on him sometimes and see how he's doing. It's the least I can do.

[dendroculi]

[nahida looks relieved to hear that. oh, good, maybe there won't be too many people trying to take advantage of kaveh here.]

...thank you. It puts my mind at ease to hear that.

[teenrebellion]

It's not a problem. I kind of owe him, anyway.

[ it's not about owing him but it's fine. kazuki's still scrolling through his phone to find her name and you'll know the moment he does because he just stops. looks at nahida. looks back at his phone. back at nahida.

and mutters to himself. ]

They have got to be messing with us. [ she sure does talk weird for a kid but??? five hundred or so??? ] Hey, you're Nahida, aren't you?

[dendroculi]

[watches him look at her, and then his phone, and then back at her.

oh dear. she smiles.]

Yes, that's me. And you're Kazuki, right?

[teenrebellion]

Yeah, that's me. [ glances back at her. ] You're not really five hundred years old.

[ this is not a question and it really should be. ]

[dendroculi]

...I thought I was older than that, actually, but maybe I just lost count over the years.

[teenrebellion]

[ ???? ]

How could you be older? Five hundred isn't even physically possible in the first place.

[dendroculi]

[one of her pointy ears twitches.]

I think maybe what is and isn't possible might differe from place to place.

[teenrebellion]

...I don't think I understand what you mean.

[ please he's a guitarist. he's in high school. he hasn't even graduated. what are you talking about. was he not told they're playing pretend or something ]

[dendroculi]

[poor kazuki.]

Hmm, well... by talking with some of the others here, I've learned that what seems normal to them might sound very strange to me, or vice versa. I'm pretty old even for the place where I come from, but even taking that into account... I actually do know people who are even older than me.

But that sounds strange to you, right?

[teenrebellion]

Yeah... The oldest people usually don't live past one hundred and ten, I think? Even a hundred's pretty crazy, let alone five hundred or more.

Then again, it's like half of you walked right out of a movie set.

[dendroculi]

It must be confusing. At least for those of us who are used to people being much older, people being younger isn't that strange, because we're accustomed to people of that age, too...

[hmm.]

Would it be easier to think of us as being from a movie?

[teenrebellion]

[ shrugs? ]

It's the most likely explanation, where I'm from? That or cosplay. I don't really want to be delude myself, either, but this whole setup is pretty crazy.

[dendroculi]

...I don't even remember how I supposedly died anyway. It's all very strange.

[teenrebellion]

I... think I know what would have happened to me. [ what a surreal conversation. ] But it's fuzzy. I don't remember actually dying or anything, just... the situation we were in.

But it's hard to believe we're supposed to be dead when so many people were having a normal day before this.

[dendroculi]

It feels strange to want proof of this, but... since we don't feel very dead, it would be helpful to have proof of what happened beyond our own fuzzy memories.

[teenrebellion]

[ proof, huh. he looks down at his shirt, one of the fresh, clean ones from ikea, and replies sullenly. ]

...My clothes were covered in blood.

[dendroculi]

[oh. oops.]

...I'm sorry.

[teenrebellion]

[ just. shakes his head. ]

It's... [ well. "fine" isn't the right word. ] ...Like I said, Kaveh-san helped me out earlier. So I don't mind giving him a hand, too, if I can.

[dendroculi]

...

[she nods.]

It will be good if we can all look out for each other. This situation is strange on its own... we should do what we can to make it easier on each other.

[teenrebellion]

That's going to be hard if you really believe this game setup they're talking about, though. It sounds like only one team can win.

[dendroculi]

...they didn't say what would happen if there was a tie. All the teams would be "the team with the most points" in that case, wouldn't they?

[teenrebellion]

In theory, sure. Don't you think they'd have some kind of contingency for that, though, like keeping the points secret so we can't track it, or something? They haven't even told us how we can get points in the first place.